johndoe

irish1

I don't think the personal use of, and parking of police cars at home makes for a safer neighborhood in all instances. Right out of the mouth of a neighbor, "Statie" who just breaks his neck to look the other way whenever he possibly can, when issues arise in our neighborhood......he has made it clear he doesn't like to "piss in his own pool." And, all our neighbors know it, so no one feels any safer knowing he is there: frankly just annoyed.

Einsteinwasaliberal

jenkens

Wow, thats a shock. Not in Charles Town. City Council members Bringewatt, Slover and Paonessa have to keep the taxes high to spend on their liberal programs with out tax bucks and push their socialist agenda. Council members Bringewatt, Paonessa and Slover recruited another liberal spender to run for City Council that has only lived here a few months and is not from Charles Town. This hurts our City because all of them are not from here, moved here, and immediately ran for office and did not take the time to get to know the people or our issues. They try to block growth and fail to improve our infrastructure such as sidewalks and our terrible drinking water. Paonessa nominated a new liberal resident that had only lived here for a few weeks and put him on the CT Planning Comm. Bringewatt, Slover and Paonessa want to increase their voting block on Council to stop growth.

Jolene26

Berkeley residents keep voting in Republicans, the same good old boys (and girls) who have no idea's except to benefit the rich, and yet they expect different results. Hey guys, take a gander at how WV ranks in quality of life, and then decide if it's worth it to remain a "red" state. We're at the bottom of nearly every measure. For example, Shelley Moore Capito selling out North Mountain for personal gain. She knows as long as residents have no will to think, to look beyond right wing rags for information, that she will be free to "have at it" for as long as she chooses.

Leeroy

Your state and county law enforcement should take their vehicles home but the 1 mile wide area city???? NOT!!! From the looks of this article Martinsburg’s city manager is doing a bang-up job. Taxes up, property values down. Looks like more tickets and taxes for the city folk this year.

billieboy

Why all the crime if the cars keep it from happening ,thats wishfull thinking criminals dont care they will spit on the car and rob their home get real,Kenny needs 300,000+ for new cars with high milage,how much of those miles where to and from work.Its government they tearup family speeding tickets hire family for open positions and god knows what else ,if all the officers are so honest and perfect why are they all remarried or divorced 3 times over.

callie

Einsteinwasaliberal

And how about the fact that we pay police officers horribly and the fact that providing them with transportation is huge perk for them. I am so tired of the bashing of public employees in this country including law enforcement, teachers, federal employees ... If any police officers are reading this, thank you for the job you do and know not everyone begrudges you having transportation to offset your low pay.

Ipadlady

Honest to goodness! A pack of lies. I lived in a town with an excess of 300 police officers, none of which were allowed to drive their cars home. Martinsburg has several officers that don't live in Berkeley County, let alone Martinsburg. We even have one officer that lives in Maryland. Let's spend a fortune on gas and upkeep just waiting on a so called dire emergency. We tax payers are paying for these officers to enjoy this costly perk! JUST SAY NO TO ANOTHER POLICE LEVY!!! PARK THE CARS!!

Ipadlady

kw25401

Patriot2192, most of your big crimes, homicides, hostage situations, shootings, etc., involve half the officers that arrive on those scenes coming from their residences from off-duty. Your Special Response Teams, K-9 officers, bomb techs, often respond from being off-duty!

kw25401

To those of you here who obviously have no concept of officers' needs to have take home cars, let me enlighten you. Having a law enforcement background, I can attest these officers have to respond to court hearings on a daily basis. They have to maintain high levels of training on a monthly basis, and in the case of dire emergencies often respond from their homes to assist. I understand the frustrations with taxes and revenues, but the last place you should be looking to save is cutting law enforcement. For little pay and benefits, make officers drive personal cars to and from work will result in retention of quality officers being non-existent.

Patriot2192

I have said this before many times. It's time to park the city and county police cars at the station. This perk needs to stop. The gas and maintenance costs would save the city and county a significant amount if money every year. Other city and county officials need to park their vehicles as well. All need to start driving their own vehicles to work just like the rest of us. I have never seen this happen anywhere but in this state. It's time to stop this hemorrhage of funds just so a city, county or state employee get enjoy a costly perk. And by the way, stop using the excuse that they may have to respond to a crime from their house. That's BS and everybody knows it. If the Berkeley County Council and City Council ignore this, then they have no right raising taxes or conducting another levy.

newshound

I posted on an arcicle about the sherrif and mis use of Vehicles. In Martinsburg it would appear each officer has his own car. Within a 10 min walk of where I live are 3 houses where police officers live. I know this because when ever I pass the houses there is a police car parked out side. I can understand maybe an officer on call may need a car but how many officers do you need to supervise 10 or so patrol men, and if they are supervising why are they sat at home and not out working with the men. A lot of money would be saved by better use of vehicles. the other way of course would be to classify the private use of police cars to go to work and back as a payment and make it subject of tax, You can bet the cars would be parked at the police stn then.

WVVet25

it's not only Martinsburg city values that have declined, but there will be no reduction is taxes owed, due to budgetary commitments. you WILL continue to pay for MTBG police officers to drive patrol cars out into the county where they live... $4/gas to the taxpayers..just tellin' why MTBG city taxes will not decrease.

Sandpiper

Here's a finance director that expected values to rise. Do you not read the Real Estate section of the journal? Do you not see the tremendous numbers of foreclosures and short sales? Do you not see the increasing number of renters who used to own their own homes? Maybe if you stopped reading the national realtors association's news for unicorns and fairies, you would have foreseen this.

Hipsta

Wanting the property values to increase, and actually doing something to make property values increase, are two entirely different concepts. City management involves management, not simply collecting taxes. Start with condemning and demolishing many of the non-recoverable properties in the downtown. Easy target- those buildings that have burned or partially burned.